I'm so glad to be here. I'm also again thankful for being on this campus because let me tell you, you guys have spoiled me this morning. I pulled in this morning and I was over in the gravel lot, which is an awesome space to park your car. And there was a golf cart there ready to bring me over. I was like, this is awesome.
Started reaching to figure out if I needed to tip somebody or, you know. But I'm a cheapskate, so we know that didn't happen. Then I got in here and they provided a small breakfast and some coffee, man. It was awesome.
So, because of all of that, I feel like I gotta give you guys my all.
So, is it okay if I confess for just a few moments a few problems that I have in my life, and it'll help me to be a little bit more transparent to you guys today? I'm a caffeine addict. But let me start by saying hello, my name is Joe, I'm a caffeine at OK. I'm a caffeine addict. I also have a huge problem when it comes to over-analyzing myself.
I'm always overthinking things. I want to know what people are thinking about me.
Now, whether or not I apply it to my care factor, that's a whole different thing. But I do care what people think about me sometimes, which ultimately leads me to this major confession. Are you guys ready? I'm an annoying neighbor. That's really who I am and I I know I'm an annoying neighbor because.
Maybe you guys have experienced some similar things. Maybe you are that a neighbor as well. But I know I'm an annoying neighbor because it takes me 30 to 45 minutes to get from my house to the mailbox. Why? Because I've stopped.
and talked with everybody. I've even invited people to the house that I shouldn't, or I find myself waving at the person jogging down the block, and they're probably going. Stranger danger, where's my whistle? I don't know. But I'm that annoying neighbor.
I'm annoying. And you know, it helps me to truly relate to this passage that I believe is going to expound our minds today about who that neighbor is. What love God has for us, and how that should and must pour out to those around us. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Romans chapter 13. 8 through 10, and I'm going to be reading from the CSB translation, so I encourage you to follow along.
It says, do not owe anyone anything except to love one another. For the one who loves Another has fulfilled the law, the commandment, do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet, and any other commandment are summed up by this commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. Love does not wrong a neighbor.
Sorry, love does no wrong to a neighbor. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law. I love this passage here because For me to truly understand loving thy neighbor, I have to first understand I am that neighbor. I have my awkward tendencies. I have my moments where I'm just above and beyond.
And I have those weird moments. I'm the neighbor that sometimes you see coming down the block and you run into your house because you're like, I only got five minutes to get somewhere and he's gonna talk to me for an hour. I'm that neighbor that you're like, he's best kept outside because if he gets inside, He will never leave. I am that annoying neighbor.
So when we talk about loving thy neighbor, we have to truly understand what type of love and the conditions of love that make us love our neighbor. These conditions are important. And in the beginning of Romans 13, it talks a little bit about. that type of conditioning. But I want to first talk about being that neighbor.
I confess to you guys for a few moments that I do desire and I care about what people think about me. And I just want to make it very clear. You are loved regardless of what people think of you. Our God loves you so much, he does not care about the old things. He knows he wants to bring something new to you.
So I want to make it very clear today. You are not here by accident. You're not at our campuses by accident. You're not online by accident. You didn't slip and fall and click on a button and magically this little guy showed up on your screen.
You are here on purpose. God has a plan for you. He loves you. He desires you. He cares for you.
No matter the situations that you may have endured in your life. The abuses that you have gone through, the bad decisions you have made. Our God loves you. He makes it plain and clear in John 3:16. Obviously, it says, and we probably all know this by heart: for God loved the world in this way, that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.
I struggle. I struggle with how I receive love, which ex explains why I struggle with loving my neighbor. It explains that why it's Easy for me to reject that a God truly loves me, so it makes it even easier to reject a neighbor who needs love. I struggle with these things. But you know what?
Our God said, I want to be your example.
So he sent his son. Part of him. Part of the Trinity. He broke off a piece of himself to become humanity to die for us because he wanted us to know how important you truly are to him. And once we understand how much we are loved by him, it then makes it easier to love the annoying neighbor like myself.
But Here's something that's so awesome about this. Is that our God doesn't just love us for where we are. I believe that it is amazing and it is profound that he loves you where you are. But what makes his love even more profound is that he doesn't want to leave you where you are. Love.
Thy neighbour I love this passage. Our God loves you for who you are, but his greatest profound moment is not leaving you where you are. He is conditioning us to receive his love, to serve and obey him, so that then we can love. like him. I want to talk about his conditioning love.
What is that conditioning? that I'm talking about. This love that pours out on us, but conditions us to love others. I believe that Romans 13 leads us to the Ten Commandments. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Exodus chapter 20.
1 through 17.
Some might see the commandments. As boundaries. Making it easier for us to defy them because it's like these are just rules and regulations, and God is narcissistic, and it's all about Him. No, I actually beg to differ. I don't see them as boundaries.
I see them as things that help to condition us so that we can actually receive His love. Can you imagine if your basket had holes in it? How could you hold water? You can't. But if he conditions us, if he brings us to a place where he can pour out all of his love for us and we can truly receive it, then we can now love like him.
Exodus chapter 21 through 17. It reads, Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. Do not have other gods besides me. Do not make any idols for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. Do not bow in worship to them, and do not have, I'm sorry, and do not serve them.
For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the father's iniquities on the children. To the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands. Do not misuse my name. Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuse his name. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Sorry, you are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work, you, your son or daughters, your male or female servants, your livestock, or the resident aliens who is within your city gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything in them in six days. Then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.
I want to stop here for a moment. Because I believe that the Ten Commandments are broken up into two sections. The first section that we just read for a few moments helps us to focus and connect our minds to understanding whose we are. It helps us to understand whose love actually abounds around us. Who do we truly serve?
These are not commands to keep you locked down and held captive. These are commands to keep you focused on what type of love you are receiving. Who is your God? In fact, I believe that these passages teach and condition us to know whose love and what love we are held accountable to carry. It keeps us focused on him.
Imagine how much easier it would be to love our neighbor if God was our focus 24-7. Imagine how much easier it would be to wave back at that weird guy like myself, knowing that your love is not the one that's presented. It's God's love through you that's being presented to that man. It keeps us Focused on him. Before he even gives us any other boundaries, talking about dealing with our neighbors, he first talks about us receiving him.
Us staying focused on him.
So I hope today, that person who's sitting in your living room right now, you all here in the seats, you all over in our acoustic service, you all who are at our campuses, that you are understanding. What God died for you? What he sees in you. How he's developing you, and then hopefully, we can, as ourselves, look back and say, God. I give all of me now to you.
Then he continues on in verse 12: Honor your father and your mother, so that you may have a long life, and in that land that the Lord your God has given you, do not murder. Do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony against your neighbor, do not commit, sorry, do not covet your neighbor's house, do not covet your neighbor's wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Now he's talking about Your neighbor.
Now, for some of us in here, this seems to be common sense, right? I mean, I hope you guys aren't mass murderers. Because you're making me nervous now if you're not. Hopefully, you guys are not adulterers or thieves. I mean, these are all things that I would believe are common sense to how we should treat our neighbors.
But he still mentions this for a very reason. Because if we love with our own strength, with our own minds, guess what? We will struggle with this. But if we love the way God has put inside of us to love our neighbor, then these things will become simple. Pastor Joe, you're beating the dead horse.
I'm not. In 2018, a poll from the CBN News said this about the relevancy of the Ten Commandments. Uh in 2018. The poll found that Americans between the age of 18 to 29 are less likely than older adults to say the Ten Commandments are still important today, including the commandments against stealing, murder, and lying. Pastor Joe.
That was 2018. Grow up. We're in 2025. You probably still have a Samsung phone. I do.
I'm okay with that. I love my Samsung phone. But that was 2018, which means that It probably started even before 2018, but let's just track from 2018. Until today. Literally just yesterday, as I was watching the news, there were two major articles that came out through WRAL.
One, there was violence that erupted in a local school where there was gun violence that took place at a local school. In fact, this is one that just struck me as you must be crazy. but a person decided to get inside of their truck and run it into a police vehicle here in Raleigh. That is wild. That it starts out in 2018 where people are struggling with whether or not the Ten Commandments are even relevant.
So now we're seeing blatant disrespect for our neighbors. Clearly, there is a breakdown. in the command. and our understanding in it. See, this poll and these articles show a struggle to love thy neighbor because we've begun to reject the commands, which ultimately tells me.
Going back to our first point. Do we even understand who loves us? Do we understand who died for us? Do we understand who desires to be with us? Your God cares so much and he's conditioning us through these Ten Commandments that we can go out and love our neighbor.
So that we can be a light to to this world. I want to tell you guys a little bit of a testimony of my life that is not exactly the most glorifying. I wish that there was something that would just like pow, bang, boom. But this story actually has to do with my background. Both of my grandparents were alcoholics.
Um I really actually never knew my grandparents.
Sorry, my grandfather specifically. I knew my grandmothers, but my grandfather specifically. One on my father's side actually drank himself to where he actually had cancer. And he passed away leaving six kids with my grandmother.
Now my grandfather passed away when my dad was in his teens, so I never even met him. But there's something that's unique about this story because my grandmother. raised six kids in New Jersey and kept them alive and well and they all made it to their adulthood besides one because of some interesting stuff that happened in the background. But five kids she brought to full maturity. I've got I'm joining a step team.
And she was able to bring them to maturity. to a point where they became adults. And you would think like I. that she brought these kids to adulthood so now she can make it to what I consider parental retirement, right? Grandparent years, where she could just sugar the kids up and send them home.
Well, unfortunately, when you don't have a father in the house and you don't know the father's love truly. The kids are going to make mistakes. And so they did not hold themselves accountable to all their responsibilities.
So then my grandmother wound up becoming a parent to her grandchildren. Many of them had to stay with my grandmother. And What hurts so much about this story is that there were points in times where these grandchildren, my cousins, started to kind of call her mom. missing a generation, skipping a generation. They weren't privileged to all of the opportunities of having a standard mother and father relationship.
All they knew was their love from my grandmother.
Now she had just again gone through losing her husband, raising her kids, and now she's skipping her retirement years to now pour into the life of grandchildren. But God was transforming her life. I grew up in a Methodist church. She was actually a part of a Methodist church. And she sung in the choir.
And I loved what God was doing with her. God used her to love her neighbors. She could have easily rejected my cousins and said, They are your responsibility to their parents. But instead, she said, bring them in. I'm not going to let them fall.
She loved on them. And let me tell you, she was not perfect. Because as she was ministering to word to you, she was using colorful language. She, I'm telling you, man, after she would say something awesome, she'd put her cigarette out. But we loved her.
Because it wasn't just her love she was pouring out. It was unconditional love that God was pouring into her. God was shaping her. She knew who she was serving. And I want to encourage you all, you may not be perfect.
And that's okay. As long as you allow God to use you, as long as you will love others as he has commanded you to do, it is imperative. That we give ourselves to the Lord, to allow ourselves to be conditioned by Him. Her love for her neighbors reflected in her transformation. It may not have shown up immediately in the physical because of the bad habits she may have continued in, but it showed up in the children that she has led to the Lord.
My cousins still have struggles in their life. but I remember going to her funeral. And it was amazing hearing them talk. about her and her life. And it makes you look beyond all of her shortcomings.
It made us look beyond all of the things that she was incapable of doing because she was not able to buy the coolest shoes or provide all the greatest things. But she was there when times were tough. She was there when they needed love, and she was there when they needed correction. God loves you. the very same way.
God wants to pour into you the very same way. You may not think he is providing for you, but remember the things he's brought you through. You may not have walked out with clean shoes and unscathed, but he was there for you. He has covered you. You again are not here by mistake.
You were not created by mistake. I don't care what labels they put on your life. Our Lord loves you. He gave his only begotten Son for you so that you can now love your neighbor. When you allow the Lord to condition you.
You start to realize that his love now starts to pour out of you. Have you guys ever been in a situation where uh It's like you're talking to someone, you're having a really good conversation, and out of nowhere, wisdom that you would have never had on your own has poured out. I do that all the time because my wife likes to crack a joke every so often, saying, Hey, Joe, you're pretty dense, I know. But man, when the Holy Spirit pours out of you, it is just amazing the wisdom that just moves on to other people. How that wisdom comes and gives that aha moment.
I want you to know that that's not you, that's God's love pouring out of you. That's allowing him to use you. That was not by mistake. He is using you. And I want you to continue to have those moments in your life.
Allow him to condition you so that you can love like him. You must love like him. It is a command. Which leads me to his love pours out of us. His love pours out of us.
You can't control it. When you say yes to the Lord and you truly allow Him to transform you, guess what happens? Naturally. His love will pour out of you. And the things that happen around you.
will begin to change and people will be blessed and they will be loved. But if you choose not to If you try to reject his love, you try to love your own way instead of doing it the way the Lord called, you start acting similar to this. We have a neighborhood cat, his name is Artichoke. My family, we named him Artichoke. He's probably got a thousand different names.
He's a pretty tame cat.
Now I am definitely allergic to anything that has fur. I think I'm even allergic to myself at times. But this cat recently showed back up again on our porch, and it was awesome because we had already made up stories and convinced it in our life that he hadn't showed up for a while, so he must have been dead. But this particular cat is the, is, is like my nemesis. The way you see me run from this cat, you would swear it's an American cat with an AR-15.
No, sorry. But I get on my good shoes and I run from this cat because I know I'm gonna catch the worst allergy attack. And I think my wife loves this cat more than me because she She then goes the opposite direction and brings milk and calls it onto the property like, what in the world are you doing? She'll pet this cat and I'm like girl, don't touch me. But she and I show what it might look like the differences when we're living in our own flesh, but when you're truly showing love.
He's bringing something to the table loving on this cat while I'm running for the hills. If I'm allowing the love of God to pour out on me, guess what? I'm not running from that neighbor. I'm not quickly closing in the doors. And I'm not hoping that, I'm sorry, I'm not wishing that.
I met my time schedule. I'm thinking about that person's life.
Now don't get me wrong. You will have moments where you're in a rush. But it's the Holy Spirit's Grabs you and tells you it's time to minister to somebody. Put all those other things aside. Because I guarantee the outcome of your conversation and him using you is going to be so much greater than whatever you were trying to achieve.
His love pours out. From us. Romans 13 8 through 10 concludes in the end, it says, and any other commandment are summed up by this command. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no wrong to a neighbor.
Love, therefore, is the fulfilment of the law. Allowing ourselves to be conditioned and changed by God's love, we begin to reflect His love. His law His heart. And if we are broken like his heart, we will be broken for the things that he loves. Thus pouring out his love to those who are around us.
I am every day learning how to be a better father. Let me Confess something else. I love my kids. But there are days I just want to... I can't do the hand motion.
I just want to choke them. In fact, actually, it was so funny because I saw something online the other day that said, finally, these teachers get to participate in the joint custody of our kids. It's awesome. I thought it was funny, but this year, the school year started, and I was so excited. Hey, let's get you out the door, man.
I'm telling you, I was ready as if I was going to my first day of school. I was so excited. But every day, I'm trying my best to be a good father. I'm trying my best to love my kids. But I'm starting to realize more and more and more that I need the love of Christ to continue to pour on me so I can actually love them the way they deserve to be loved.
Those moments and times where I want to choke them are the moments and times the Lord is going, wrap your arms around them. I'm that weird neighbor that I know you want to choke me, but instead, wrap your arms around me. I need you. The world needs you today. The Lord is calling us to pour out His love.
to our neighbors. But how do we continue to discover this love? It's more than just the Ten Commandments. He's called us to pray. That is an open line, a direct avenue to Christ.
He calls us to fast, putting aside ourselves so that we can be in a greater atmosphere with him, so that we can be held accountable. And here's another one, again, accountability. connecting with our brothers and sisters. Let me tell you that in this particular passage, we're talking about agape love, unconditional love. But did you know that there are other types of love out there?
There's love like Phileo love, which is more brotherly love. Then there's Eros love that tends to get us in trouble more often than we need. Those are loves that he's not talking about. He's talking about agape love. And accountability keeps us focused on agape love.
Sometimes a fence is used to help us to stay focused on agape love. Hey brother, you're not loving well today. Hey brother, I don't know if you're in the right spirit today. Let me make it very clear to you that if someone is offended, that's between them and God. But if you're the one trying to offend, That's a you problem.
But offense is not a bad thing. It gets you out of the place that you were into a place where you need to be. Here's another thing. My dad used to spank me. He spanked me a lot and I deserved it.
How's that bad kid? But let me tell you When it comes to getting out of that comfort zone, he had to use his hand, his belt. or his shoe, or whatever was closest to him, to help me get out of my spot. And I imagine that the Lord uses that in many of times that we may sometimes think that he's being brash or he's being rough on us. No, he's actually loving on us.
He's correcting us so that we can truly receive what he has in store for us. My dad was the explaining type of spanker. Have you guys ever dealt with that? Thanked you and told you about it. I know you're hitting me, dad.
I know I'm in trouble. Can we get this over with? But no, he wanted to make sure that you truly understood what was going on. I imagine if we kept our ears in tune with what God is saying to us through the hard times, maybe we would receive his love through the correction more than our anger and cynicism through the circumstance. Then, also, last but not least.
He wants us to pour out our love. But he gives us these Ten Commandments so we're not pouring out the wrong love. Love that is selfish. Love that only wants to acquire its own gifts. Love that is only there to make itself big.
No, he's saying, I want you to understand who I am, focus on me, so that then I can pour out through you, so that those who are around you see me through your life. Before loving your neighbor, it is imperative to know who cares. For you. I can't assume everybody in this room today truly understands who loves you. I may have mentioned it in the beginning of this message about how much he cares for you and what he was willing to do for you, but I'm going to make it even more clear.
Our God, Jesus Christ, cares for you. This isn't any God. Jesus Christ died for you. Wasn't Muhammad, wasn't Buddha, wasn't anybody else? It was Jesus Christ who died for you.
Thousands of years ago, Adam and Eve had a selfish moment. They decided they wanted to turn away from God and disobey his commands. And in doing so, unfortunately, they The curse of Adam. and Eve poured out to the generations over and over and over again.
So we We're born in sin. But our God loves us. He knew that the wages of sin are death. But he loves us so much, he cares for us. And in closing, I would love for us to understand.
that he loves us so much. He cares for us so much. that he doesn't want to leave us there.
So, I want to open up an opportunity right now for you to know that Jesus died on the cross to make a way for you so that those old things would not label you. Will not keep you held captive, and will not prevent you from loving your neighbor the way that you should.
So, first, we need to receive him. into our hearts. There are probably two types of people in this room that this prayer is specifically for. First, that person who's like, Who is this Jesus Christ? And we would love to tell you more about it.
And I'll tell you more in a few moments on how you can get that information. And then there's also the second person who may have been a Christian for ages and probably had a bad week. I don't know about you guys, but I have those weeks sometimes that I wonder, does God really love me? Why am I here right wha why is this happening right now? But he does.
He still cares for you. And as I pray this prayer in the next few moments, if this is you trying to find out who this God is and what is this love, because. I only know the world's love.
Well, I want to introduce you to God's love. Or that second person who may have had a tough week, a tough year, a tough lifestyle time, and had not really truly received God's love and allowed it to transform you. This prayer is for you as well. This is an opportunity. To really allow God's love to pour out on you.
So in the next few moments, if you just bow your heads with me. And just agree with me in prayer for one moment. Lord, we love you. We care for you, but we can't care for our neighbors, Father, until we understand who you are in our life and accept you truly as our Lord and Savior. God, our lives have been rough, things have been crazy.
But we acknowledge you right now. We admit that we are sinners. that we have gone through some crazy things in our time. We've made some bad decisions. We admit that on our own, Father, we do things wrong.
But also, Lord God, we believe that you died. Jesus died on the cross. that we can be saved from these things. that we're no longer held accountable. for all of those old things, but now we can walk with you, God.
We also confess that you are the only God. The only one who can do this. You're the only one who cares this much, Father.
So we put you first in our lives. You are God. God over our life. God over it all.
So today, Father, we choose to serve you. We choose to allow your love to pour into us so that it pours out to our neighbors. We receive you and the transformation power your love brings. Move through our lives right now. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. And amen. I must say this. Before the Lord Ascended to heaven, he said, I'm going to send you somebody, the Holy Spirit, to walk with you. And Cross Assembly has adopted some of the same sentiments.
to not just accept the Lord into your heart, but we want to work walk with you. There's a QR code, there's a phone number, and for some who are online right now, there's a button for you to press. If this is your first time accepting the Lord, we want to walk with you. We want to connect with you. We want to be a part of your life.
We want to grow with you.
So I encourage use the QR code, the phone number, the button on the screen so that we can send you information, so that we can connect with you, so that we can walk with you. Because guess what, guys? We are a body. We're not one man alone.
So we want to be there with you through it all. Amen? Can we worship today? Did I down you? I hope I brought you up.
Can we worship today? Let's worship today, guys. You're worthy of it all for you are all things, and to you are all things. You deserve the glory. Day and night, light and day, let it since arise day and night, light and day, let it since arise day and night, night and day, let it since arise day and night, night and day, let in since arise, day and night, night, night and day and rise day and night, night and day, let in since arise day and night, night and day lit and since arise day and night, night and day you're worthy of it.
You're worthy of it all, Jesus. For from you are all things, and to you are all things. You deserve the glory. Oh, you're worthy. You're worthy of it all.
Oh, you're worthy, worthy, worthy of it all. Over from you, for from you are all things, and to you are all things. You deserve the glory, Father. We join with the angels saying, Holy, holy, holy are you. We praise you for your.
your love that you have poured out to us. And we believe and we receive the commands you have called. told us to do to go. Out and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father. the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Father, I ask that you would pour out your love on us that we can love our neighbor. Neighbors like you love us. We accept you right now. and your command. And I pray that in the name of Jesus, You would push aside the enemy's attacks that may try to condemn us, bring back old things in our lives, telling us that we are not worthy.
Father, here we are. saying yes to you, Father, and we know we are worthy to go out and Change this one.
So Father, empower us today. To do a great work for you. And at the end, I pray you get all the glory. The honor. In the praise.
In Jesus' name we pray. In Jesus' name we press. Amen and amen. Let's go and change the land, guys. I love you all.
Thank you so much.
